Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution

Fred Korematsu challenged the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. His case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him and accepted the government’s argument of military necessity. In the 1980s, his case was reopened on the basis of new evidence and a U.S. District Court judge vacated his conviction and found that the government had given the court false information.
Korematsu, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, traveled across the country to speak about his case and stress the importance of constitutional protections for all Americans. Five years after his death in 2005, the State of California established Jan. 30, his birthday, as Fred Korematsu Day.

Celebrate Fred Korematsu Day with these two events!

Saturday, January 27, 2018, 1pm - 4pm

Keynote Address by Don Tamaki, Civil Rights attorney who represented Fred T. Korematsu in 1983 and also an attorney involved with the amicus brief filed by the children of Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui opposing the Trump administration’s Muslim Travel Ban.

Panel Discussion to follow discussing both the 1983 Korematsu case and the amicus brief opposing the Muslim Travel Ban.

RSVP is highly recommended to secure a seat by emailing publicprograms@jamsj.org or by calling 408-294-3138 by January 20, 2018.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018 12pm – 1:30pm

Santa Clara County Family Justice Center201 North First StreetSan Jose, CA 95113

Brown Bag Lunch

Hon. Marilyn Hall Patel (ret.) will be presenting an “Inside the Decision” perspective of her decision in Korematsu v. United States which overturned Fred Korematsu’s wartime conviction for violating the Japanese-American internment and how it relates to current events in politics and the courts.

RSVP is required as space is limited. Please RSVP to rsvp@scscourt.org by January 23, 2018.